This paper deals with the existing fishing crafts, new vessel types, boat building programmes, their standardisation and mass-production in India

Gnanadoss, D.A.S.

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STANDARDISATION AND MASS PRODUCTION OF SHRIMP 
TRAWLERS AND OTHER FISHING BOATS IN INDIA 
D. A. S. GNANADOSS 
Central Institute of Fishe.ries Education, Bombay 
[ This paper deals with the existing fishing' crafts, new vessel 
types, boat building programmes, their standardisation and mass-
production in India.] 
The fishing boat normally represents the 
.~ingle largest investment to the fisherman and 
the dominant position of the fishing vessel in 
the economics of the industry hardly needs 
. any emphasis. 
The application of modern technology in 
Jishing boats in India is of comparatively re-
cent origin. This development has been 
rather varied, from the simple installation of 
an inboard or out-board motor in an indi-
.genous craft to the designing and construc-
tion of modern fishing trawlers according to 
ihe availability or otherwise of existing boats 
:suited for motorisation and the fishing re-
.quirement of the regions. 
:Ex:sHng Cralls 
Motorisation of the existing boats has 
heen confined mainly to the Gujarat and 
Maharashtra regions where the Bedi, the 
Lodhiya, the Bassein and the Satpati type 
boats have proved themselves suitable for 
this purpose. These crafts will continue to be 
built for a long time by the same rule of 
thumb method of the local craftsmen on a 
cottage industry basis and as such it will be 
diffi'cult to introduce a measm•e of stand-
ardisation in them. 
In these regions the fishing gear and 
methods also have not changed appreciably 
and therefore the main improvement that 
has generally been done to these crafts has 
been to make the sternpost of the crafts 
suitable to take the stern-gear of the engine. 
New Vessel Types 
The other maritme States of India how-
ever had to take to new designs of boats, 
a.s the existing crafts were either not suitable 
ior mechanisation or did not provide much 
93 
efficiency after installation of an engine. 
These new designs have originally been 
developed by the various· State Fisheries 
Departments, with the help of the Naval 
Architects of the F. A. 0 . 
A decade has passed since this develop-
ment started with the 24'-7" "Pablo" Boat 
and at present the popular vessel types are: 
( 1) The 30 footer open type boat for gill-
netting, 
(2) The 30 footer half-decked boat for 
trawling and gill-netting. 
(3) The 30 footer fully-decked boat for 
trawling. 
( 4) The 32 footer shrimp trawler. 
& (5) The 36 footer shrimp trawler. 
The 30 and 32 footer vessels form the base 
for the scheme of mechanisation in these 
States under the Third Five Year Plan and 
these boats are to be built in their hundreds. 
Boat Building Programmes 
The boat building practices as they exist 
now are time-consuming and the costs tend 
to spiral all the time. Som¢times the builder 
has to build to a different design the same 
class and type of vessel when a second order is 
placed with him, that he has to prepare a fresh 
set of moulds which mean time and money. 
The fisherman on his part has often to wait 
for long and miss peak seasons before the 
boat is delivered to him. 
Standardisation 
The need, therefore, is for an accelerated 
programme of building coupled with efficient 
techniques to bring down the building costs. 
Chidambaram (1963) stressed the need for a 
few standard designs for fishing boats so that 
it will be possible to turn them. out in large 
numbers at cheaper rates. Traung (1959) has 
stated that F. A. 0. aimed at cheaper fish 
production, which could be achiev·ed by 
building cheaper fishing vessels. 
These aspects are as important to the 
Shrimp Fishing Industry as to any other 
fishery. The advanced shrimp-fishing coun-
tries in the world have achieved a high 
degree of standardisation in their vessel types, 
gear and methods. Ringhaver (1959), who 
has introduced assembly line production 
methods for shrimp-trawlers, records that "the 
Florida shrimp trawler has spread to Texas, 
·hundreds of them having been built in J.\!exico 
and the type is now spreading into Central 
and South America .. " 
In the context of the ,Shrimp Fishery of 
the South-West coast of India, the design of 
·the 30 and 32 footer vessels can be taken as 
standard ones, but it will not be long be-
fore these vessels are considered too small 
especially with the prospects of fishing for 
shrimps in Off-shore areas during the mon-
soon months. 
Therefore it becomes necessary to stand-
ardise designs of shrimp trawlers of the 36 
foot, 40 foot, 45 foot and 50 foot class, which 
will probably take care of developments 
during the next decade. At present there are 
different types of vessels in this length group 
operating for shrimps in this area, like -
(1) The 36 footer boat based on F.A.O.j 
C .I.F. T. design 
(2) The 'M' boats uf the Indo-Norwegian 
Project 
( 3) The "Durga " type boats supplied 
through T.C.M. aid 
( 4) The 'Kolmeen' type boats construct-
ed by the New India Fisheries. 
These vessels vary from each other in 
their lines, arrangement and consturction 
and consequently in their performance also. 
Cost variation is also an important considera-
tion. 
The standard shrimp trawler of the South-
West coast of India (36 to 50 ft. L.O.A. 
range) need not necessarily conform to any 
one of the above types in their size groups, 
but can combine the .good feature of each 
94 
vessel. It can also take into account features-
of mass produced and highly successful vessel. 
types like the Florida Shrimp Trawler. 
Such standardisation is necessary in other 
types of fishing craft also which are being· 
introduced now. 
Mass-Production 
With standardisation of design an acce-
lerated programme of construction of boats is 
possible. Except in Kerala State, where boat 
building is a well established cottage industry, 
in all other Sourthern States the boats are 
built mainly through Government run boat-
yards. 
Standardised designs of these boats should 
lend themselves to mass production on an. 
assembly basis instead of the present prac-
tice of a set of workmen who start with. 
shaping the keel, work on the boat upto the· 
finishing stage, fabricating each member of· 
the boat and fixing it. 
The mass-assembly procedures tried in 
the boat-yard of the Indo-Norwegian Project 
at Quilon for the 25 foot I.N .P. Boat and 
the mass-production methods introduced by 
Erstlander (1961) in Ceylon for the 27! ft. 
fishng boat are cases in point, which prove 
that standard design boats can be turned out. 
on an assembly line production basis. Ringha-
vier's (1959). paper on "Design and mass 
production of Shrimp trawlers" describes how 
trawlers in the 50 - 70 ft. class are built on. 
assembly line production basis. 
At present a large number of 30 and 32 
footer vessels are required to be built for 
the State Fishery Departments and it will 
be useful to apply mass-production methods 
to these ,types of boats. Most of the structural 
members of these vessels can be pre-fabricated 
either in the saw-mills or the wood working sec-
tions of Industrial Estates or Co-operative 
or boat-yards. The men who fabricate these 
parts need not be boat-builders. They need 
only know carpentry to turn out boat com-
ponents to conform exactly to the pattern 
furnished to them, 
The boat-yard need only be. a place of 
assembly of these pre-fabricated parts which 
will be done by specially skilled boat-builders. 
Thereby it will be possible to make a better 
utilisation of the skilled·. personnel of a boat-
yard and turn out boats on a mass-assembly 
basis. 
With mass-production the cost of boats 
will go down and the fisherman will have 
his boat delivered to him on schedule at a 
lesser cost. The experience thus gained with 
References 
these smaller boats will be of great value in. 
organising mass-production of larger vessels 
which will be required with the progress of 
mechanisation. 
Fishing Boats of the World-2, (1960). 1 . Traung, J. 0., 
2. Traung, J. 0., Experience in Fishing Boat building appli-
cable to the I.P .F .C. Region, (1960). 
3. Traung, J. 0., 
4. Chidambaram, K., 
5. Erik Erstlander, 
6. Gnandoss, D. A. S ., 
7. Ringhaver, L. C., 
8. Gurtner, P., 
Mechanisation of Fishing Craft. Proceedings 
of U. N. Conference on Science and Tech-
nology, (1963). 
Deyelopment of mechanised fleets in Indo-
Pacific Fisheries. Proceedings of the lOth 
Session of the I. P. F. C. Bangkok, ( 1963). 
Building description for F. A. 0. Design, 
E.26, (1961), 
Report on a study of Fishing Boat Building 
and mechanisation in the United Kingdom, 
Norway, Denmark, Italy and Turkey, 
(1959). 
Design and Mass Production of Shrimp 
trawlers, F.B.O.W. 2, (1960). 
Second and Third Reports to the Government 
of India on Fishing Boats. (1959 and 1963). 
In view of the limited time and the num-
ber of papers to be presented, the discussions 
were carried after all the papers were read 
by the respective authors and the recom-
mendations as given below were made. 
Recommendations : 
(i) Detailed studies on the operational as-
pects and behaviour of trawls and their 
accessory gear should be conducted using 
modern recording instruments. The experi-
ments with the gear evolved should be 
conducted at the various fishing centres. 
{ii) The work on the evolution of an econo-
95 
mic size of shrimp trawler suitable for 
each region may be continued. 
(iii) The off-Shore Fishing Stations and the· 
Central Institute of Fisheries Technology 
may collaborate and co-operate in the· 
evolution of suitable winches for all classes. 
of boats. 


Standardisation and mass production of shrimp trawlers and other fishing boats in India

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Standardisation and mass production of shrimp trawlers and other fishing boats in India

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